Tom Clancy’s The Division earned the number two spot on my countdown because, frankly, I am betting that the game won’t be as good as they say it is. If you can learn one valuable lesson as an avid consumer of gaming merchandise, it’s to have low expectations. This game, in theory, is the exact game I want to play right now. I haven’t purchased a new game since Dying Light in late January. Also, the group I play with on Destiny only play that game and I’m losing my interest in it. The Division looks like it can be the game that brings them away from Destiny and maybe start us on a new game all together. After being slightly disappointed by Destiny because I overhyped the game for myself beforehand, I have decided to consume much less gaming media than usual. Less media means less information about upcoming games. Less information means less hype, and therefore lower expectations. This equals a happier purchase, hopefully.
Putting those reasons aside, I am very excited to play The Division in late 2015. It caught my eye at E3 and the graphics are astounding!! One thing that also stands out to me is the setting: New York City. A photorealistic simulation of four of the five boroughs proves to be a interesting setting for an MMORPG third-person shooter. For those of you who don’t know what an MMORPG is, it’s basically a double genre designation MMO + RPG. MMO stands for massively-multiplayer online and RPG stands for role-playing game.
Go take a look at some footage of the game really quick and then come back.
Now it’s time to play that game we play every week: Dissect the Video! Using the terms we just learned let’s dig in and discover together the why behind The Division’s high ranking in my countdown. We can start with the most obvious mechanic in the game: the third-person camera. Third-person games give the player the ability to see the character they created in realtime while traveling and during engagements, which makes the game more satisfying to play since we see the progress as we play. Next, it is worth noting that other real people had joined the spectated player and this is where the MMO aspect comes in. According to images provided later in the video we can assume that small teams of four or five human-controlled players will be spread across the map of NYC and will have to basically fight for resources and safe houses, among other things. This is another reason why The Division seems so captivating and also the reason why I am keeping my expectations low. Many games try to achieve success with MMO elements in a shooter with RPG mechanics, which we will discuss next, and it’s mostly hit-or-miss. Personally, I think this is where the developers could mess up more than anywhere else. Let’s hope for gamers’ sake that they don’t!! The RPG mechanics were denoted by the wheel of skills and abilities the player called upon before and during combat. Role-playing games basically allow you can choose the skills you want to give your character so that when you prioritize certain skills over others you are essentially creating a more unique character and the more skills you have available to you to choose from, the more unique each player’s character will be thus leading to team specialization and a better, stronger team dynamic.
Alright I think we pretty much covered the important bits. What did you think of the gameplay? And how does it compare to other gameplay videos you have seen? Let me know in the comments if you think setting low expectations is a good or bad way to prepare for a game’s release?
All in all Tom Clancy’s The Division will probably be a perfectly good game, but I wouldn’t go so far as to say that it will be a masterpiece; for that we shall have to wait and see. Don’t get me wrong I am very excited about this game, but I feel that staying conservatively happy will ultimately lead me to a better surprise when I start playing it.
Thanks for reading! Stay tuned for number one on my countdown !!!
P.S.- I bet you have never seen smoke rising in front of a tail light look so good.
yooooooooooooooooooooooo my man Antonio!!! Its been too long man u know but like just know i been reading ur stuff again not gonna lie tho i got some catchin up to do. Nice ass article as usual but you gotta make it longer man like 2 times longer no joke. ur stuff is mad cool i love readin it but its od short, dont hold back for no one man. But like yo i just watch ur video it was dope no lie that had me going. Yo no homo shit but u got a nice ass voice too, like real talk bro, like u shud do some voice commercials make some money u know my uncle Fred did that he not that rich but like his car type nice tho. Truth tho i was surprised ur english was mad smart sounding cause your name Antonio n you look like u mexican or someshit also u grew up in Corona which i know is a Mexican beer. i mean thats cool i dont hate on mexicans they make good food n shit just dress weird. Also if you could let that chick in the video holla at me that would be money she sounds baaaaaaaaaaaad ;).
good job Antonio! You made some nice points regarding preconceived expectations and the way it may affect our impression of a game. I thought your “Dissect the video” portion was clear and good as well. Having said that, there does seem to be something lacking with the overall article. You use the things I’ve mentioned as a take off point- a stand on gaming followed by an explanation of the subject for the uninformed. Yet you go nowhere with either. As much as it hurts me to say, John here makes a valid point. The article, as well as the others you have written, should be significantly longer and more in depth. Most importantly do not hold YOURSELF back. I think two times longer is somewhat reasonable if not still short, considering what you have written was more of an introductory segment. You’ve asked questions yet you gave me no real incentive to think about them. I’ve noticed a number of grammatical mistakes as well. Take yourself seriously and others will follow. This feedback isn’t just about “QC voices”, it’s about your writing. You show promise, do not let it fall short- there is a reason I’ve chosen to speak about your article and not those of your peers. I wish you the best!
It has a good graphic.. I love the visualization of this game
I’m kind of biased as I run a fansite and am currently in love with the game. But I definitely agree with multiple parts of this review. One aspect that I really enjoy is the whole dark zone aspect. The tense and crazy atmosphere of wondering if the person you’re running next to is going to go rogue… it’s great haha. The only thing I was minorly disappointing about was the character creation options… I keep seeing the same goofy dude running around. I also notice it with weapon and gear vendor NPC’s… you’d think with such a big great game like this, they could’ve at least made unique NPC’s for each vendor.. especially considering that isn’t even THAT much vendors in the game.